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In a press conference on Monday, December 23rd, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta confirmed that Bukayo Saka will be sidelined for 'many weeks' after sustaining a hamstring injury during Arsenal's 5-1 crushing over Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.
The England forward was seen staying down on the ground and he required medical treatment only 22 minutes into the game. Leandro Trossard replaced Saka, who left the pitch while limping; in a severe discomfort.
Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Bukayo Saka will face a spell on the sidelines pic.twitter.com/xFMaNq0ZR0
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 23, 2024
Saka later exited the Selhurst Park stadium on crutches after the match ended and Gunners' fans were distraught after his injury blow. Arteta has now confirmed that Saka has torn the muscle and is set to be sidelined for a significant period.
Arteta briefed the issue in the press conference
Mikel Arteta did not sidestep his worries regarding this huge injury blow as he described it as a 'huge blow' for the team. Arteta stated:
It’s not looking good," he said. "He’s going to be out for many weeks.
It’s another part of the development of a player. At some stage at this level you're going to get injured - unfortunately badly. It could have been much worse. It could have been something else that can take you out for a year.
It’s how you react to that, how you overcome that situation and it’s a great learning process for him as well. It is what it is. He's injured, we cannot change it. We're going to use this time now to help him.
I'm very optimistic that he will be back before the end of the season.
Arsenal will miss their best player this season
Bukayo Saka has been on cloud nine this season, putting brilliant performances across all competitions for Arsenal. The 23-year-old has been directly involved in 15 of Arsenal's 34 Premier League goals this season, scoring 5 and assisting 10 in 16 matches.
Saka has brought his expertise to show on the Champions League nights as well, scoring 4 goals and assisting 2 in 5 appearances.
It will be a challenge for Arteta to execute something excluding Saka on the frontline; he must find a replacement to take on the all-important UCL clashes and most of the remainder of the ongoing Premier League.
Arteta placed Gabriel Martinelli to the right wing to replace Saka during Saturday's match against Palace, moving Gabriel Jesus down the middle and Leandro Trossard coming on to the left wing.
Another winger, Raheem Sterling is also announced to be out of service after sustaining an injury in a training session on Friday. Arteta remarked on the limitation of his options but said that he would try different things.
That's the first one we went through, especially because he's (Marinelli) played there before, he played the last match there against Everton and the last match of the season. He did really well. He did really well the other day, he scored a goal and created an assist and is a good option to have.
Gabby (Jesus) has played there. Ethan (Nwaneri) has played there. Leo (Trossard) can play there in relation to how that unit moves. Kai can play there, asking him different things. We will see, try different things and ask how they feel about it."
We went through the period with Martin (Odegaard) and the time when we had five or six defenders missing. We're taking it with positive energy.
We started the season with one of the thinnest squads in the Premier League. We knew that. OK, so what do we need? I really dig into that, you know? To make sure that we utilise every player to their best potential.
Everyone has to feel part of it, you need to rediscover players in different positions, relationships. It's a great one, it's a good exercise. And the boys are willing, so that's a really good thing as well.
